Love at first sight | 30 November 2017 The correspondence between her and Eric Siepmann is erotic, honest, funny and supremely sad read more in The Spectator

The name’s Sorge, Richard SorgeOwen Matthews on the colourful life of a Stalin-era secret agent read more in The Spectator

The thoughts of Chairman Gonzalo When Nicholas Shakespeare wrote his Shining Path novel, he attributed characteristics to its leader which no member of the public knew. They proved spot-on read more in The Spectator

Novel explosives of the Cold WarOrwell’s searing satires as well as samizdat works from Solzhenitsyn and Pasternak proved powerful weapons in the fight against communism read more in The Spectator

The greatest journeys ever made The British, French and Dutch discovered Utopia — and left it ‘the worst country in the world’, as Diana Preston relates read more in The Spectator

Outward bound Queen of the Sea: A History of Lisbon reviewed read more in The Spectator

Voices from the recent past Naim Attallah’s illustrious interviewees also include John Updike, Diana Mosley, John Mortimer, J.K. Galbraith and Harold Macmillan read more in The Spectator